TNAG-1247-FCO40-1561-Press-reports-on-the-future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 76

RESTRICTED

5

Earlier, the Commissioner for Securities, Mr. Robert Fell, said foreign funds were continuing to come into HK. There was an inflow of $2 500 m. in the first few weeks this year, he noted.

7.

1997 ACTION GROUP:

A few papers, including the SCMP, carried a report about the 1997 Action Group, a pressure group of HK Chinese living in the UK, who are here to gather grassroots opinion about the future, mostly from public housing tenants. The leader, Mr. Alfred Chan, said attempts to meet various top officials in the Government had proved unsuccessful.

He was equally frustrated when he tried to reach Legislative and Executive Councillors, although he did eventually have a brief meeting with Dr. F.W. Li and Dr. M.H. Ip. Mr. Chan said the Unofficials were unable to give a clear answer as to how Councillors gathered public opinion. He felt that Umelco was in fact separating rather than linking the Government and the people. Mr. Chan said in terms of democratic practice, HK was in no way comparable to Britain, although it was said to be ruled in accordance with the British system. He said a report on their experiences here would be sent to Mrs. Thatcher's Cabinet and to MPs who took an interest in HK.

8.

PRESS LINES:

During the week both left-wing and independent papers were relatively quiet, with neither Ta Kung Pao nor Wen Wei Po commenting editorially on HK's future.

But, in a special feature on investment in HK, Ta Kung interviewed the chief of foreign commerce service of the American consulate, Mr. William Jackson, who said the investment climate here was now very good and would continue to be promising in the future. Many American businessmen were still enquiring about investment opportunities in HK and their intention to invest here had not changed. In defending the self-rule proposition, a New Evening Post columnist said the proposal did not contradict the preservation of the legal system which was strongly advocated by the HK Belongers' Association in its new publication, "The Voice". The self-rule proposition would have been completely distorted should it imply that only British people understood legal concepts.

In independent papers, the HK Economic Journal quizzed the accuracy of a report in the Economic Daily published in Beijing saying there was an inflow of $19 300 m. into HK last year. The paper suspected that the figure might have been arrived at by deducting the M3 figure in December, 1982, from that in the corresponding month in 1981. If that was the case, the figure would be very misleading and suggest that funds were flowing into HK because investors welcomed China's self-rule proposition. Later in the week, a commentary in the paper urged residents to ponder the political, economic and legal implications of the self-rule proposition. These were the technical problems which should be straightened out between Britain and China. The 1997 question was a major issue in history. Any solution reached by leaders of the two countries would be a precedent in resolving territorial disputes between nations. During the week, the Express and the right-wing Kung Sheung Daily News also repeated their stand that the self-rule option was not acceptable and people in HK should determine to speak up on the 1997 issue.

RESTRICTED